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Kunimitsu Tezuka
Kunimitsu Tezuka (手塚 国光, Tezuka Kunimitsu?) is the captain of Seishun Academy's ("Seigaku" for short) tennis team, Tezuka is considered to be a National-level tennis player. As the captain, he is very serious, and is strict when enforcing order within his team. Tezuka is the character who encourages the series' protagonist, Ryoma Echizen, to develop his own style of tennis, leading the latter to consider him to be both a mentor and a rival. Throughout the series, Tezuka constantly struggles with the pain in his left arm, which was caused by an injury inflicted upon him by an upperclassman two years prior. However, he is often willing to sacrifice his arm in order to defeat his opponent and lead his team to the Nationals. He is voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu in the original version, and by Kirk Thornton in the English version. Personality As the captain of the tennis team, Tezuka is serious about everything he does, and is very strict; one of his trademark phrases is "Don't let your guard down" ("Yudan sezu ni ikou"). Still, he is fair and sticks to his word; if the rules are broken, he punishes everyone, including the regulars. He would often make the entire team run laps when they break the rules - a trait which he inherited from Yudai Yamato. Though his arm heals to some extent, the doctor still warns Tezuka against long matches and using his signature drop shot. Tezuka, however, considers his health secondary to the team's success, and continues to risk re-injuring himself in his matches to ensure his team's victory, even after returning from his medical treatment. Throughout the original manga series, Tezuka is shown to never smile, though he is apparently immensely popular among the female fans of his school. It is only until his team becomes the National champions at the end of the series that he shows a smile, though he instantly reverts back when Fuji points out the fact. Still, the fact that Tezuka never smiles and always looks so serious has been made into a running joke in the series. In the anime, his always serious attitude even prevents him from showing any reaction when drinking Sadaharu Inui's famous vegetable juices, resulting in others believing he is immune to the often dreaded concoctions. However, he quickly and sternly declines an offer to drink it later on. He also picks up some character traits from his grandfather, and a running gag in the story is that Tezuka looks older than his actual age, often as his teammates' teacher, despite the fact that many characters also look older. Background Kunimitsu Tezuka is introduced as the serious and strict third year captain of Seishun Academy's tennis club, who gives Ryoma Echizen a chance to become a regular by allowing him to participate in the Intraschool Rankings Tournament. Despite being known as Seigaku's "strongest man", he initially remains on the sidelines during tournaments, as another teammate would sometimes play in his usual position of singles 1 or his team usually defeats their opponents in straight sets. Though he secretly challenges and defeats Ryoma in an unofficial match in an attempt to reach his junior to become Seigaku's new "pillar of support", his true skills are first shown during an Intraschool Ranking match against Inui. Three years prior to the start of the story, a young Tezuka showed up after the Junior Tennis Tournament and easily beat the tournament's runner-up, Genichiro Sanada. The tournament champion, Seiichi Yukimura, challenged Tezuka to a match, but the winner is not revealed. After entering Seishun Academy, Tezuka was seen as overconfident and arrogant by the upperclassmen at Seigaku due to his talents and seriousness, especially when they discovered that he was left-handed even though he played with his right. A jealous teammate then injured Tezuka's left arm, leading to chronic problems, and his sealing of Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami, a technique which required the use of his left arm. Still, because of his skills, he was recognized by captain Yudai Yamato, who convinced Tezuka, who had decided to leave the club because he did not want to be on the same team as people who hurt others with their racquets, to become Seigaku's "pillar of support". This, along with the promise he made with teammate Shuichiro Oishi, in which Tezuka promised to lead Seigaku to the Nationals, encouraged him to stay in the tennis club. Shusuke Fuji later requested a match against Tezuka, and though Tezuka was defeated, Fuji was displeased with the outcome after finding out about Tezuka's injury. The two promise to play each other once again after Tezuka's arm completely heals. After a while, Tezuka became a team regular despite being a freshman. By his second year, he became the team's vice-captain, and defeated Hyotei Academy's captain in the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament. He was invited to the Junior Senbatsu tennis training camp, but because his arm problems returned, he declined the invitation without stating his reasons to the organization. The first serious official tournament match he plays is against Hyotei's captain, Keigo Atobe. Though the return of Tezuka's arm injury causes him to collapse in pain, he refuses to give up, and after a long and tedious tie-break, the game ends with Atobe victorious, marking Tezuka's first loss in an official singles match. Tezuka then decides to go to Kyushu in order to receive medical treatment for his injuries at a health clinic near Seishun University. While Tezuka overcomes his fear of feeling the pain in his shoulder, he continues to support his team, sometimes discussing the team's lineup for upcoming matches over the phone. In the anime, Tezuka recovers at a renown sports clinic in Germany at Ryuzaki Sumire's recommendation. He plays one last match against Ryoma before he leaves, using is right hand for the whole match. Tezuka takes time to adapt his Tezuka Zone for his right hand and finishes Ryoma off with a right-handed Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, challenging Ryoma to adapt to a player who can evolve during the match. He returns right before the National Tournament, where he unseals his Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami, to defeat Higa Middle School's captain, Eishiro Kite. Tezuka goes on to defeat Hyotei's Munehiro Kabaji. In the National semi-finals, despite it being a doubles match, Tezuka plays one-on-one against Shitenhoji's Senri Chitose; their partners step aside in order for them to play with their full power. After unveiling his new Zero-Shiki Serve, as well as revealing that he has opened Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami, Tezuka wins. Before the final match of tournament against Rikkai Junior High School, Tezuka tells Oishi that he plans to go to Germany in order to become a professional tennis player after this tournament. During his match against Genichiro Sanada, Tezuka unveils his Tezuka Phantom, however, this, combined with the continuous use of the Zero-Shiki Serve, damages Tezuka's arm, creating a weakness which Sanada soon uses to his advantage. A cord ball by Tezuka which drops from the net to his side, results in Sanada's victory. However, in the end, after Ryoma's win against Rikkai's captain Seiichi Yukimura, Tezuka finally achieves his goal of turning Seishun Academy into the National champions, and smiles for the first time. Tennis Styles and Techniques Tezuka is an all-rounder tennis player, otherwise known as an all-court player, meaning he can use aspects of every tennis style depending on his needs. His dominant hand is his left hand, though in some parts of the story, he is shown to be capable of executing his techniques with his right hand as well. His skills are at the National-level and is one of the strongest tennis players in the series. ;"No-Touch Ace" :A highly fast serve, this serve, while looks like a flat serve, is actually a slice serve. Not only that, he can hit the serve highly accurately in the corners of the service box. ;Drop Shot :His mastery of the drop shot, including the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, is at such a level where it looks just like a regular stroke until he hits the ball. The only (minor) difference between his drop shots and a regular stroke is that he drops the racquet head by 3.2 mm. This is one of his trump cards, and is used during slightly serious matches. :;Zero-Degree Drop Shot (Zero-Shiki Drop Shot) ::One of the reasons Tezuka is acknowledged as a National-level tennis player, this is a high-level backspin drop shot that, once it touches the ground, it rolls back to the net due to the amount of backspin added instead of bouncing, making it impossible to return once it makes contact with the ground. One notable difference between the anime and the manga versions is that, in the anime, Tezuka can perform the Zero-Shiki only with the backhand, while in the manga, he can hit it with both the forehand and the backhand. This is definitely one the greatest of his trump cards. ::;Zero-Degree Serve (Zero-Shiki Serve) :::A variation of the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, it's a serve that, instead of bouncing, it rolls back to the net just like the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, due to its incredible spin. This does not give the opponent to even touch the ball. Similar to the Tezuka Phantom, the amount of spin used to execute this technique puts a heavy burden on the arm, and can injure his arm if it was to be used consecutively. :::"This technique was broken once, even though it seemed impossible, by Sanada Genichirō in the manga. Sanada is able to use KaRinRai to weaken the spin on the ball, raise the ball from the ground, and allow it to go over the net, successfully defeating the serve. ;Tezuka Zone (手塚ゾーン, Tezuka Zōn) :A (nearly) impossible technique, only 3 people are known to use this technique. This technique forces any shots the opponent hits right back to Tezuka. The reason any of the opponent's returns are "sucked" into his hit zone is due to the large specific amount of spin that is required for Tezuka to add to the ball, which is freely controlled. Tezuka does not even need to move a step; all he needs to do is pivot one foot around the area he is standing in without lifting that foot from the ground, and putting a specific rotation on the ball with every hit. With every return, Tezuka can (presumably, due to deduction) add a new heavy spin to the ball. :This technique can be broken, however, by these ways: by putting a counterspin to the ball to neutralize the spin (demonstrated by Sengoku in the anime and by Sanada in the manga and OVA), by putting a stronger spin on the ball to break the spin on the ball (demonstrated by Echizen Ryoma in the anime, when both players were using their right hand), and by overpowering the spin with sheer power to decrease the range where the ball will be returned (demonstrated by Sanada). :;Tezuka Phantom ::A variation of the Tezuka Zone, instead of sucking the ball towards Tezuka, it forces the ball out of bounds. However, the amount of spin the Tezuka Phantom requires to even make the ball out in singles is six times greater than the spin used for the Tezuka Zone, which puts a very heavy burden on Tezuka's arm, and consecutive uses of this technique may result in Tezuka re-injuring his arm or being permanently sidelined. ;Muga no Kyōchi (無我の境地, Muga no Kyōchi, trans. "State of Self Actualization") :Tezuka has been revealed to have unlocked Muga no Kyōchi in the anime and manga. However, he was never shown to copy another's technique in this state, and he has never used Muga no Kyōchi by itself. :Tezuka has been shown to actually have unlocked Muga no Kyōchi at a young age, since Oishi has mentioned that Tezuka had a prototype version of Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami during his freshman year, and was confirmed during a flashback of Sanada Genichirō that Sanada was defeated by Tezuka in Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami. However, due to his arm injury, both Muga no Kyōchi and Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami were sealed until the Nationals during his 3rd year against Kite Eishiro. :Muga no Kyōchi has three doors, but Tezuka has unlocked two of them. They are: :;Hyaku Ren Jitoku no Kiwami (Pinnacle of Hard Work) ::The first door of Muga no Kyōchi that Tezuka has opened, he focuses all of the energy of Muga no Kyōchi into different parts of his body, increasing the capabilities of that body part. What makes Tezuka's Hyaku Ren possible is the Tezuka Zone, which allows him to focus the Hyaku Ren's energy into his left arm, preventing the immense loss of stamina caused by the Muga release, and giving him the ability to return balls with twice the strength, or spin, that they were hit with. :;Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami (Pinnacle of Great Wisdom) ::The second door of Muga no Kyōchi that Tezuka has opened, he can focus the power of Muga no Kyōchi into his brain, which allows him to be able to tell how many shots the current rally will take and who will win the point, giving him a form of foresight. Tournament record The following is of Tezuka's known official matches: *'NOTE-1 '''No results due to Seigaku already winning 3 sets *'NOTE-2''' Doubles partner is Sadaharu Inui, but match is played as a 1-on-1 against Chitose. Category: Characters